real life experiences

[Luwee]

So i think i can drift pretty good in the game; what would happen if i took out a real car and tried to drift with it?
(i would of course go to a track or somewhere that is considered private property)

any stories?

 

[Joey D]

You'd probably crash your car into another car/pole/tree/person. Doing something in a video game well does not mean you can do it well in real life. Also I can't even think of a legal place to drift since most tracks will not allow it on open track days, so there is a good chance if you wanted to do it in real life you would have to break the law and do it on a street.

 

[Loon]

I'd have to agree with Joey here, you'd more than likely not be very successful right off unless you just happened to have a knack for it.

 

[Scaff]

Also I can't even think of a legal place to drift since most tracks will not allow it on open track days, so there is a good chance if you wanted to do it in real life you would have to break the law and do it on a street.

Do you guys in the States not have drift schools or old airfields to rent? The UK has plenty and on top of that as long as you could get access to a piece of private land then you could practice until the tyres fell off (which would not be that long) and be totally legal.

A drift school would be my recommendation however, as Joey quite rightly said just because you can do something in a game doesn't mean you can do it in the real world.


Regards

Scaff

 

[nk4e]

Of course your going to have to do it illegal. Though you may not have the money to drift a FF even though it is possible( Has experienced a FF drift) but not recommended. But you can do is this

A drift school would be my recommendation however, as Joey quite rightly said just because you can do something in a game doesn't mean you can do it in the real world.


Regards

Scaff

Shadow Drifter is a Instructor for SCCA sponsored Drift School
Drift School
SCCA DRIFT

Not to my knowledge, we have a local track around me that has a drift day once a year but that's about it. All of our airports are still occupied and have planes flying out of them.

On the West Coast there is:
Bakersfield Drag Strip
Leguna Seca
Infienion*spelling*
Irwindale,CA
Other tracks as in Mountains or Freeways.

I don't know when this is but remember, Professionals Advise you to practice at events like Drift Day or Tracks like this(which is rare) or Away from the Public.

A drift Academy in NorthCal.
and finally...
Possible outcomes of Street drifting
http://youtube.com/watch?v=q6DINcBv8jk
Click here to see Video
Please don't follow these guys. Though I wish they have track open in Central Cal.

 

[Joey D]

Do you guys in the States not have drift schools or old airfields to rent? The UK has plenty and on top of that as long as you could get access to a piece of private land then you could practice until the tyres fell off (which would not be that long) and be totally legal.

Not to my knowledge, we have a local track around me that has a drift day once a year but that's about it. All of our airports are still occupied and have planes flying out of them.

 

[Scaff]

Not to my knowledge, we have a local track around me that has a drift day once a year but that's about it. All of our airports are still occupied and have planes flying out of them.

Ah you see that's one of the great legacies of WWII that we have in the UK, lots and lots of airfields were built in the south of the country during the war, the vast majority of which were decommissioned after the war. A good number of them were converted into race tracks (such as SIlverstone, Thruxton (which also still has a private airfield in the in-field) and my local track Castle Combe), and the rest were pretty much abandoned and may have only just started to be built on, prior to that they were pretty much public access.


Regards

Scaff

 

[GT_Jim]

Here we have an old airport and some years ago we had a chance (suggestion of a very important man whose name I cannot remember) of making it a racing track (mostly for F1) but our smart politicians refused it.
But, in the tracks that there are here it is legal to drift. Crazy drivers with RX8's and M3's go there, but the track is not enough for the people who want to play with the police. . In the Greek roads, drivers who don't deserve a driving license are more dangerous than illegal drifters though.

As for the real life drifting... yes it is difficult but, I think that "powerslide" is usually considered a drift. It is not that hard to take a M3 and just pull the handbrake at 30mph on a high speed turn. It is just a slide caused by the speed and the handbrake. The real thing is to have an MX5 and drift round a cone. (at a distance, not very close so it is actually a donut.)

 

[Luwee]

i live pretty close to infineon but ive never seen drifting going on their. usually just guys who think they have sweet cars, they are nice cars but all they do is drag racing.

 

[Duke]

We used to drift our old banana-seat bikes like that when I was little - call it the early '70s. I learned how to change my own bike tires at 8 or 9 because I was sick of hearing my father complain about how I tore them up all the time.

I'm looking for some info on amateur/local drifting events. I'll post some up when I find them. But in general, no, Scaff, we don't have old B-17 and Lancaster taxiways littering the countryside.

[edit] Click here for some US drift events you can drive in. Mostly in California, but also Road America in Wisconsin and someplace in Illinois. There may be local events in the east - I know NASA is eating the SCCA's lunch when it comes to keeping up with the times.

 

[dking]

It was wet...I lost traction in the rear of a 87 bmw 535is turning left....It felt like how gt4 does when you start to lose traction...I knew what was going to come of this lost traction...Time seemed to slow a little bit as my eyes drifted to the side of the road where it drops off fairly steep....I thought...."oh not today..." sOOOoo I used my gt4 crash avoidance tactic and turned to the left harder to spin the car 180*...It turned out that I had just done a 180* into the oncoming traffic lane...So It came out for the best....Car was not scratched...and I was pointed in the right way for the lane. So i just drove off...I wasn't trying to drift or lose control....BUT Gt4 skills helped me stay safe. If i went off the road.....I don't think i'll be typing this...

Another time for fun in the snow i got a smooth drift in a mazda mpv goin 35mph looking out the driver window to go forward....(area was totally deserted...)

Don't drift on the streets on purpose...But If you find yourself in a hairy situation do what you know to get out of it....I feel a lot safer with some idea of what a car will do when its out of control thanks to gt4....You can push it to the limit every time in the game and make mistakes...You can push it hard in real life too but make a mistake on this stage...you can hurt someone....I don't care if its you...but don't hurt anyone else.

 

[nk4e]

DK O_O,

Once in awhile during highschool, my friends and I would ditch class to try to FF drifting.( Now my friend is very good at it). Upon entering a golf course parking lot which one half is actually parking and the other is dirt and stones. To make a mid story short, We started to drift with a FF car while old men look at us with golf clubs.

 

[DG5 DRIFTER]

you would spin because you probably arent use to using a clutch dont forget gt4 is a simulation if it had a clutch it might help but other wise i dont get why you asked this question.

 

[GEETOWN_DRIFTER]

i Drive a 00'Mustang, and About a year ago i was cruisin down the road about 80mph, it was dark and as i was drivin i topped a big hill and the pavement ENDED, so im cruisin 80 and hit a dirtroad, well i start to pump the brakes a little and i see a curve to the right comin up. about 50 i turn the car and it slides completely sideways, the bumber is on the edge of the road and grass is slapping the front of the car and as it slides i see the corner opening so i Floor it and the car slides out to the edge of the road all the way around the curve and exits perfectly.... it scared the S**t out of me, i had to stop and take a breather..... I've practiced a lot since then, in my town of around 700 people theres not much traffic and a lot of dirtroads, they are good to practice on and much easier/less stressfull on ur motor to drift than pavement.

 

[dking]

you would spin because you probably arent use to using a clutch dont forget gt4 is a simulation if it had a clutch it might help but other wise i dont get why you asked this question.

if that was directed at me....the car is auto and it was very wet...just went a lil fast and lost traction...there was no question asked...just a story told.

 

[Luwee]

you would spin because you probably arent use to using a clutch dont forget gt4 is a simulation if it had a clutch it might help but other wise i dont get why you asked this question.

heyy mann i was just trying to get some cool stories.
i got 2 so far so its chill anyways


but you are right, clutch is a whole nother peice of driving;

 

[articzap]

Shortly after starting to drift in GT4, a week or two, I got in an accident, wintery conditions. Anyways, after that I went on GT4 Tskuba wet and made happen what happened in real life and I did what I did in real life with very similiar results! Had I just started a little sooner I'm sure I would have known not to hit the brakes, n00b mistake.

 

[alexwrc]

Mmm, interesting experiences. All sound too much exotic for Spain, because we haven't drift schools properly, just small trainings from some private driving schools.

Here, people usually preffer rallyes (Tarmac mostly) so it's the firts gate to start compiting in racing events. In fact drifting is really unknown yet in Spain, except enthusiats who discovered it by personal interest.

Anyways the Joey D post is the better first response for this thread, and as Scaff said GT is a videogame. I have to say GT is not the best way to start learning virtual drifting. Remeber physics are limited in a few crucial areas, and a virtual M3 is a toy for a baby while a real M3 is a car for expert real drivers

Salu2.alexwrc

 

[Suzuki]

i cant believe you guys in cali cant find a track to drift at. we have events here every other month, its hard to believe cali doesnt have a few events per month.

 

[nk4e]

i cant believe you guys in cali cant find a track to drift at. we have events here every other month, its hard to believe cali doesnt have a few events per month.

Well, there might be various reasons behind that.

 

[Shadow Drifter]

Yeah I was actually present during the SCCA Board meeting where they talked about that.

Drifting has been incorporated into the SCCA and will be implemented throughout in a strategic manner. In lamens terms, the SCCA knows about drifting, they want to get things going, but the interest just isn't there from the current members of the SCCA.

If you live in an area where they do NOT allow drifting, your best bet is to petition to try to get drifting started legally. We have done that here with Watermelon Capitol Speedway and it worked, we simply explained that it's the safe way or the illegal way and they cordially accepted our pleas. It works, for the most part, but sometimes you have to have some significant backing.

Drifting in the streets isn't cool, no way, no how, not in any shape or form. I don't condone it, the SCCA doesn't condone it, 10 out of 12 people that actually have track experience do not condone it and will look down upon you for doing such. The streets are for people to get back and forth to where they have to go, not so that you can test out your new suspension part or so that you can learn how to properly left-foot brake.

That being said

Gran Turismo 4 is a video game. Being able to drift in said video game does not mean that you can drift in an actual situation. Any attempts to do so are simply foolish and any thoughts of a game actually increasing your skill set as it applies to handling a motor vehicle is purely psychosomatic.

A game, such as Gran Turismo, Forza or any other game in the market available today, is not going to prepare you for the actual forces that are placed upon a car in actual events. The only way that you will get better is seat time in a legal environment with constant attention and readily available instruction. This is why the SCCA and NASA go through the trouble of certifying individuals to become instructors and why they bother having a licensing program. Basically, any monkey can turn the wheel, it takes a person with experience, seat time and skill to be able to maneuver a vehicle.

I stay away from GTP because of threads like this one, and I become slightly angered when I see that people are actually taking to the streets because of what they THINK they can do. Note I used the key word "THINK" because I'm willing to put a year's paycheck that out of 10,000 gran turismo 4 drifters, only 5 of them can actually control a car in the manner in which it was designed, and that's because they actually have the seat time in a real motor vehicle on a real track or sanctioned course to say they do.

I'm here to say that there are several events THROUGHOUT the United States that are available to everyone from the most novice to the most advanced.

I am a demonstratoin and exhibition driver for TWO racing teams that hold events country-wide

1. Drift 411: http://www.drift411.com
2. Cool Cat Racing: http://www.coolcatracing.com

I'm pretty much done here, I mean, I really want to knock some common sense into a lot of you, but I understand that my words are falling on deaf ears and a lot of you will simply have to injure yourself, kill yourself or kill someone else on the streets to understand that it's not the place for your car to move above posted speed limits.

Thank you,
-Stig

 

[Luwee]

well im gonna go die in a hole now

i send my sorry's to whoever else I have angered.

 

[nk4e]

well im gonna go die in a hole now

i send my sorry's to whoever else I have angered.

Well you didn't anger anyone, its our opinion. Though you probably didn't know that there wasn't alot of organizations out there to stop things like this.

 

[marcovtwout]

Personally I think video games like Gran Turismo 4 can be an aid in learning to drive and drift. Games could make me learn what lines to take, when to brake into a corner, when and how to apply the accelerator, and as far as drifting is concerned it helps me understand drifting techniques and basic countersteer reactions.

But, they are in no way a replacement of the real thing. I would say if you could imagine the most realistic game to be released, it could take only up to 50% of learning how to apply those techniques in real life. If you would say GT4 only, my guess it that could take up to 25%. Add to that, each game has its own flaws, things that are far from correct from real life handling.

It has certainly learned me to go through the learning curve faster then I would if I haven't been playing racing sims and games like GT4 in the past 10 years.

 

[Suzuki]

Drifting has been incorporated into the SCCA and will be implemented throughout in a strategic manner. In lamens terms, the SCCA knows about drifting, they want to get things going, but the interest just isn't there from the current members of the SCCA.


1. Drift 411: http://www.drift411.com
2. Cool Cat Racing: http://www.coolcatracing.com

Thank you,
-Stig

too much to quote...
but your with CCR? tightness, cool crew. did you happen to make it out to the first scca sponsored drift event?
but on a side note, i agree with whats been said. streets with other people on it is not the place to mess around on. if your going to do it in the streets, go somewhere thats isolated(read parking lot)so if you hurt anyone, it will only be yourself/your car/your friends/whoever else came and not some innocent bystander.

 

[Azuremen]

Personally I think video games like Gran Turismo 4 can be an aid in learning to drive and drift. Games could make me learn what lines to take, when to brake into a corner, when and how to apply the accelerator, and as far as drifting is concerned it helps me understand drifting techniques and basic countersteer reactions.

But, they are in no way a replacement of the real thing. I would say if you could imagine the most realistic game to be released, it could take only up to 50% of learning how to apply those techniques in real life. If you would say GT4 only, my guess it that could take up to 25%. Add to that, each game has its own flaws, things that are far from correct from real life handling.

It has certainly learned me to go through the learning curve faster then I would if I haven't been playing racing sims and games like GT4 in the past 10 years.

GT4 really only teaches you how to take a proper line through a corner and that you have to brake and not just floor it to get around the track. Thats about it.

In regard to real life racing and drifting, GT4 falls short do to several factors, a major one being how the game handles slipping tires. Its WRONG, period.

I have seat time in drifting, rallying, and autocross and half my time at the track is spent a bit sideways just because of my car (87 MR2)... and its nothing like GT4, except the lines you take around corners. In real life you have a whole lot more going on, like the lateral loads on your body and your concern about that light pole rushing towards you (our club here rents parking lots), and so on. Not to mention the fact you can't just go into the "settings" and dial in more camber or stiffer springs if you don't like how the car handles. Most people that drift in here seem to work as much on settings as they do on driving.

The people that claim GT4 saved their ass are mostly just lucky. For example, DKing is very lucky that there was no oncoming traffic. GT4's spinout physics are pretty... odd I would say. Its hard to get a car to do a 180 at speed short of pulling the ebrake, and spinouts at low speeds are pretty mild. I did a full 360 on accident at 50 MPH in my MR2 once, going into a slalom a little too fast. What works in real life does not work in GT4, and what works in GT4 just makes no sense at times, when it comes to getting out of a spinout situation. Alot of what would make a car go sideways doesn't really work well in GT4 and so on, and its extremely frustrating.

Luwee, when you get your license, here is what you should do. Go to an autocross event. They are generally cheap and not to hard to find if you live near any decent city area. You'll almost always find nice guys that will ride with you, give you pointers, etc. Just be respectful and don't act like the stereotypical drifters that show up to these events, almost no one likes them because they do stupid things like cut their LOWERING springs to lower the car more and generally are annoying with their attitudes and disregard to basic safety in their attempts to show their mad leet skills (which are generally horrible).

Drifting is getting more popular, and more and more clubs are hosting events for it when they can have space. Large parking lots are used often around here, but those have their flip side... lots of imperfections in pavement and such, yet another real world driving issue.

My rant is done now, I think

 

[marcovtwout]

That's why I said IMO GT4 could take only up to 25%.
The game simply has too many flaws, you have nicely pointed out some.

As a note in general, try GTR2 or GTLegends for example on simulation, that will get you a lot further.

 

[dking]

That's why I said IMO GT4 could take only up to 25%.
The game simply has too many flaws, you have nicely pointed out some.

As a note in general, try GTR2 or GTLegends for example on simulation, that will get you a lot further.

I think gt4 simplifies everything you can experience....but that is it...It teaches the basics of driving. I do not condone drifting on the streets...but if for some reason you lose control of your car on the streets..I don't see anything wrong doing what you learned from gt...on a second note...nice to see real people give real advice. Keep the drifting at the track...Racing for that matter too. On the streets drive defensively and assume that other people don't see you.

 

[nk4e]

I think this is what we need in every house hold

I hope you get the joke. I agree with Dking but the new problem is that people often compare games( Forza vs Gt4 vs Enthusia). Its just a game, enjoy it. I don't like Forza because of the crashes, why would I want to crash something that I build out of the hours spent making it.

 

[Alfaholic]

So i think i can drift pretty good in the game; what would happen if i took out a real car and tried to drift with it?
(i would of course go to a track or somewhere that is considered private property)

any stories?

ALL EDITED: I just noticed that you're 14. I take all my advice back and replace it with this:
If you can't yet drive competently (a reasonable possibility at your age) then you are very likely to find basic control of the car to be a big challenge and drifting it to be a very unlikely prospect. GT4 teaches you reasonable skid control skills, but doesn't give you much of a clue how to fundamentally operate a motor vehicle.